In the electronics industry, devices such as relays are typically used to operate machinery and circuits. Such devices typically rely on energisation or switching on/off for operations.
Suppliers of such devices typically estimate a lifetime for devices. For example, for a switching device, a supplier may estimate the number of times the switching device is switched on before it becomes overdue for replacement. This estimate is typically known as life cycle usage or the lifetime. Currently, there is no suitable device or method which can provide information or early warning to users regarding an estimated remaining life of an energisable device. This may be due to high costs involved in monitoring, for example, each and every switching of a device. There is also a lack of an efficient method or mechanism for monitoring.
The lack of knowledge on the remaining life of such a device can lead to undesirable consequences such as risk of damage to machines or equipment when users do not replace an in-use device that is overdue for replacement. The lack of knowledge can also result in users trying to use a device which has already reached its end of the life cycle usage.
In the relevant industry, users would typically use guesswork to determine when a device should be replaced due to its life cycle usage expiring. This can lead to uncertainty during maintenance. In an attempt to eliminate uncertainty, users may decide to change all energisable devices much earlier before the estimated life cycle usage is actually due. This can lead to unnecessary costs incurred by the users.
Furthermore, during machinery or circuit breakdown, without knowledge on the life cycle usage of devices, troubleshooting is typically complicated. In addition, suppliers of failure devices carrying out failure analysis do not have an effective way of determining whether each failure device has failed due to manufacturing or production errors, or whether failure is due to expiry of the life cycle usage.
The present disclosure provides various embodiments of a method and a system for counting energisation events of an energisable element to address one or more of the above, or other, disadvantages or shortcomings.